Rememberance Sunday

[Lazy-Commuter]

The BBC 10 o' clock news last night showed a 14 year old boy who confessed to knowing little or nothing about poppy day, WW1 even the dates, but if someone in 1968, when I was 14, had asked me what I new about a war that had ended in 1878 I suspect it would have been very little.

I did think they went out of their way to find the two lads in the whole of the land who knew least about it .. presumably when the second half of the report is broadcast tonight, showing them visiting war graves in France and Belgium, they'll realise the error of their ways. I guess that makes for "better" TV rather than finding some kids that actually knew what it was all about.

As someone (Willow?) said earlier, it is covered in schools: Little-LC (8yo) was in the parade to our local church with the Brownies and so we spent half an hour over breakfast explaning what it was all about to her and Littlest-LC (5yo), to ensure that they respected the silence and undersood the significance of what was going on. I was surprised (and impressed) how much Little-LC knew already .. we have talked about it before, but I'm sure a lot of what she knew came from school.

I once stopped overnight in Ypres on the way to a meeting with a few colleagues. After dinner, we went to the Menin Gate. It has to be one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had.

 

[Mr Pig]

I think we can often forget how much has changed. The general public had no concept of how dire the first world war was at the time, many thought it would be a walk-over and a great adventure for the men involved. The reality was only revealed in retrospect and without the graphic detail available to today's media. Soldier's recollections, written reports and the odd black and white photo in the news papers were the order of the day.

Today people are massively more aware of what soldiers go through, with front-line news reporting and dramatisations like 'Saving private Ryan' helping to impress on people the full horror of war. I think people genuinely are more in touch with the soldier's plight because the world is a smaller place.

 

[ufkacbln]

I think we can often forget how much has changed. The general public had no concept of how dire the first world war was at the time, many thought it would be a walk-over and a great adventure for the men involved. The reality was only revealed in retrospect and without the graphic detail available to today's media. Soldier's recollections, written reports and the odd black and white photo in the news papers were the order of the day.

Today people are massively more aware of what soldiers go through, with front-line news reporting and dramatisations like 'Saving private Ryan' helping to impress on people the full horror of war. I think people genuinely are more in touch with the soldier's plight because the world is a smaller place.

Slightly OT....

There is a more worrying slant to this.....

Vietnam was the first time independent reporting showed facts and images that the "Censors" had no control over.

Now with the agendas of "fox" and the likes, along with the practice of "embedding" reporters is in fact less likely to show a "True" picture as the reporters have developed a loyalty to the troops they work with and units they feel part of.

 

[Mr Pig]

I'm sure that's true. I a way similar to the blind patriotism of the first world war!?